Saturday, October 16, 2004

The “Higher Commission for the Elections” issued a declaration that regulates its work and the responsibilities of its members together with a list of the requirements for any individual or group that wants to be registered as a political entity and to run for a seat in the National conference that is supposed to be elected next January. Here’s a translation of part of the document that was issued in Al Sabah newspaper:

The commission will decide the period during which the authorization and registration will take place and no applications will be accepted before or after that period.
To take part in the elections any group of people or an individual can make an application to the commission to be registered as a political entity, and with the application the individual who wants to be registered as a political entity should pay the sum of 2.5 million Iraqi Dinars while a group of individuals that want to be registered as a political entity should pay 7.5 million Iraqi Dinars. Any bills that result from violations made by the entity will be deducted from the sum. The money will be returned once the election ends if the political entity or a coalition of entities get 50% of the required votes to win a seat. If an entity fails to achieve that the sum will be taken to the treasury.

The requirements for candidates and registering political parties are:
1-A list of members qualified for voting that contains no less than 500 individual.
2-An internal regulations document that lists the rules that governs the party’s activities.
3-Should have no connection with a militia or an active armed group.
4-Should not receive funds from any militia or active armed group.
5-The political entity should not provoke, take part or encourage terrorist or any criminal activities and violence.
6-The name of the party should not incite hatred or violence and the logo of the party should not contain any religious or military symbols.

The list is long containing stuff like (requiring name, date of birth..etc) but I chose to translate the parts that were more important than the rest.
The whole list can be found here (link in Arabic).